


all was golden in the sky

by markhyuckfest, third



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Dreams, Light Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, Moon God!Mark, Sun God!Donghyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 10:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16385945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markhyuckfest/pseuds/markhyuckfest, https://archiveofourown.org/users/third/pseuds/third
Summary: A chance for Mark’s freedom. It’s a deal Donghyuck is more than willing to make. Gods!AU(written for the prompt MH#020)





	all was golden in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much to the mods for their patience and for running this fic fest! this deviates slightly from the original prompt but it gets there in the end, i promise! title taken from p!atd’s ‘when the day met the night’ which i repeated while writing this fic. i hope you all enjoy! ♡

There’s a story Donghyuck remembers from when he was young. It’s a story from before he was immortal, a story from before he was a god. 

Donghyuck’s mother used to tell him the story right before bed, running her fingers through his hair to soothe him to sleep. It’s a story of how when Donghyuck was born, the sun didn’t shine even though it was mid-afternoon. His mother would tell him she couldn’t remember much through her pain, but she will always remembers this: tiny Donghyuck opening his eyes for the first time and in the next moment, light starting to fill the horizon.  
  


☾☼

When Donghyuck opens his eyes, it’s to see Jaemin peering at him from above with worried eyes.

It’s not the first thing he notices, though. No, the first thing he notices is that he’s lying on a bed of grass, his body sinking slightly into the soft dirt. Then, he notices the sun warm on his face, the cool air surrounding him, and the fresh smells of pine and petrichor. They’re things Donghyuck is used to, things he’s familiar with, but for some reason they feel like a warm welcome home. It’s after all of that, that he registers Jaemin’s worried eyes.

Donghyuck sits up and pushes Jaemin out of his face. He stretches his back and it cracks satisfyingly. He wriggles his toes and the grass tickles his feet. “Why are you looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost?” Donghyuck finally says, when Jaemin continues to stare at him in silence. 

In lieu of an answer, Jaemin asks, “Where have you been?” 

“What do you mean?” Donghyuck asks. “I saw you yesterday at the _Yongdongje_ festival.” The festival to celebrate the god of the wind. Donghyuck remembers watching the rituals with Jaemin who later bragged to Renjun and Jeno. There’s something else at the tip of Donghyuck’s tongue, a feeling like there’s something missing, something he can’t remember, but he shakes it off. It must not be important. Donghyuck tilts his head upwards to better catch the rays of the sun. They heat up his face and energise him. To Jaemin, he asks, “How could you forget your own festival?”

Jaemin continues to stare. “Donghyuck-ah,” Jaemin says slowly, “the festival wasn’t yesterday.” Donghyuck turns away from the sun to look into Jaemin’s bewildered eyes. “I haven’t seen you in decades.”  
  


☾☼

Jaemin takes Donghyuck to the river, in hopes that if he splashes his face with water he’ll suddenly remember the years and years that are lost to him. Donghyuck only follows along because he hopes that some water will wash away the disbelief on Jaemin’s face.

The water does help a bit; it feels cool on his face. Donghyuck sits down on the edge of the river, leans over and dips his hand into the water again. As Donghyuck’s lifting his palm up to his face, he gets splashed by a small wave of water. Renjun appears from the river as gracefully as the god of water should, but laughs without the accompanying maturity. Renjun takes a seat next to Donghyuck, his legs still submerged in the water. 

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Renjun says, reaching over and wrapping his arms tight around Donghyuck. Donghyuck wants to be annoyed at Renjun, but then Renjun continues, more serious and quiet, “We were so worried about you.”

Donghyuck hugs him back but before he can reply, Jaemin yelps and Donghyuck looks over to see the mud shift from beneath Jaemin’s feet. Jaemin jumps to get out of the way right as Jeno rises from the earth. Jeno’s feet touch the ground but his impressive entrance is ruined when he immediately trips over. The lingering wind from Jaemin’s stunt softens as it hits Donghyuck. Jeno glares at Jaemin who sticks his tongue out at him, before he yelps again when he sinks into the ground beneath him. 

“Decades later and you guys are still the same,” Donghyuck says. It tastes weird on his tongue, to say he’s been gone for decades when it feels like he was with them just the day before.

“I can’t believe you’re finally back,” Jeno says, standing up and dusting away the dirt. He walks over and hugs Donghyuck too.

Renjun joins in again, and Donghyuck feels Jaemin join in too, squeezing all of them tight.

“Where have you been?” Jeno asks.

“More importantly,” Renjun interrupts, “have you seen Mark yet? He’s been waiting for you for a long time.”

A range of expressions pass over their faces—there’s relief on Renjun, sadness on Jeno, and pity on Jaemin. On Donghyuck, there is confusion. “Mark?” Donghyuck asks. “Who’s Mark?”  
  


☾☼

In the end, no one tells him who Mark is.

Donghyuck receives blank stares and shocked silence at his question, before the three of them all start speaking at once. Words are thrown at Donghyuck, too fast for him to catch anything in full, but the gist of what they’re saying is _Where did you go?_ and _What the hell happened to you there?_

“Mark is asleep,” Jaemin says, when they finally calm down. Their expressions are all the same now, merged into intense worry.

“Can we wake him up?” Donghyuck asks. He feels jittery. Who is this person that they all expect him to know and care about? And why _doesn’t_ Donghyuck know and care about him?

Jeno and Renjun share a look. “We can’t reach him,” Renjun says. “He’s the god of the moon, so he’s hidden away.”

“He can’t walk during the day?” Donghyuck asks.

Another look passes between them that Donghyuck doesn’t understand. “He can,” Jeno says, “but right now, he’s not.”

There’s something they’re not telling him, but no one else answers his questions. They tell him to wait until the end of the day, when it’s nearly time for Donghyuck to pull the sun down to let it rest. Donghyuck waits in the field he woke up in until the sky starts to darken. It’s sunset. 

A minute later, someone walks into the field, but he stops as soon as he sees Donghyuck. Then he runs at full speed, and when he reaches Donghyuck, he pulls him into his arms. There’s a sense of urgency, a ferocity that Donghyuck is too afraid to fight, so Donghyuck lets the stranger pull him in, and soothes the stranger’s shivering back. _This is Mark,_ Donghyuck thinks, _it has to be._

“Donghyuck,” Mark whispers, his face is pressed against Donghyuck’s neck. His breath is warm where the air puffs against his skin. Donghyuck shivers. He should be uncomfortable, with an unknown stranger draped all over him, but he isn’t. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’m sorry.” Donghyuck doesn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry but I don’t know who you are.”

Mark pulls away, and he must see something in Donghyuck’s face that says he’s telling the truth because Mark’s smile slowly fades away. The expression afterwards looks a lot like heartbreak. It tears at Donghyuck’s heartstrings.  
  


☾☼

That night, during his slumber, when the sun is put away and the moon is out, Donghyuck dreams of Mark.

Donghyuck will blame their meeting, the feeling of Mark’s arms around him and the jolt of electricity that passed through his skin. It must be muscle memory that’s telling him that this is something he knows—someone important—but it’s his mind telling him _no_.

In Donghyuck’s dream, there’s no such inhibition. 

Donghyuck watches from above as, in the same field they were in, he’s resting his head in Mark’s lap. Mark’s fingers run through Donghyuck’s hair, and he says something that Donghyuck can’t hear. It must be a joke because the Donghyuck he sees laughs and then leans up to kiss Mark on the underside of his chin. He looks happy; they both do. It feels strange to watch himself in the throes of love. 

When Donghyuck wakes for the sunrise, he’s still in the field and Mark is sitting next to him, looking worse for wear. He’s sitting with his arms splayed over his knees, and Donghyuck can tell that Mark had been watching him from the sudden whip away of his head when Donghyuck opens his eyes.

The previous evening, Mark had said, “Give me some time to process this,” after Donghyuck told him the entire story: how he woke up decades later thinking it’s only been a day, and how he has his memories of everything, with only Mark missing.

Donghyuck had turned to go, to give him some space, but Mark had held his wrist and said, “Please, let me just stay with you.”

Mark must’ve stayed with him the entire night. 

“I had a dream about you,” Donghyuck says, not getting up. Mark stares into the trees, looking away from Donghyuck’s face. Donghyuck takes the opportunity to study Mark’s face in return and takes in the slope of his nose, the sharpness of his cheekbones, and the length of his eyelashes. Mark glows in the rising sun. He sees Mark’s fingers dance in the grass, moving closer to Donghyuck’s until they stop an inch away, like Mark has thought better of it. For some reason, Donghyuck craves the absent touch. 

“Was it a good dream?”

It was, but there’s something more important that Donghyuck wants to know. “What were we before?” Donghyuck asks, instead. There’s a part of him that already knows, a part of him that can tell from the way that Mark looks at him and moves in tandem with him, from the way Mark’s fingers sank into Donghyuck’s skin like they were coming home when Mark first hugged him.

Mark’s silent for a minute. “We were partners,” Mark says, finally looking at Donghyuck. His eyes look sad as he speaks. “We were lovers. You used to call us soulmates.”  
  


☾☼

Jaemin suggests the two of them stay together, hoping that it’ll jog Donghyuck’s memories. Donghyuck thinks that even without the suggestion, Mark wouldn’t have left his side. Donghyuck isn’t sure whether he would have left Mark’s either.

Renjun goes deep down into the water, to see if there are any stories like this—any stories of a god disappearing and losing his memories of another. Jeno travels far and wide searching for answers too.

For weeks after, Mark and Donghyuck never part except for when they have duties to attend to. During the day, Mark shows Donghyuck everything he’s missed, right until the end of the sunset when Mark goes to lift the moon and Donghyuck goes to sleep. 

There’s a tension between them at first. Mark is so in tune with Donghyuck, it takes Donghyuck by surprise. It tears at Donghyuck’s skin, his memories lost, and it feels like a large chunk of Donghyuck has been ripped away from him—abandoned, dead, gone.

An eclipse passes and Donghyuck gets to see night meet the day. Mark is the most excited of the both of them and shows Donghyuck the wonders of the night with an enthusiasm that’s contagious. 

The memories of before, of when Donghyuck and Mark were lovers, are still gone, but with each passing day, Donghyuck can see the picture more clearly. His body remembers where his mind fails him. With every touch from Mark that Donghyuck leans into, it tells him, _this is someone you know, this is someone you care about, this is someone you love._ And maybe, just a little, Donghyuck falls in love again all the same.  
  


☾☼

“I dreamt about you again,” Donghyuck says.

They’re high up in a mountain, sitting in the grass, watching everything down below. Decades later and technology may be different but civilisation is still the same. 

“That seems to be a recurring thing,” Mark says. He smiles at Donghyuck, leaning in and his cheeks dimple. Donghyuck can’t help but smile back. “Was it a good dream?” 

Mark asks that every time Donghyuck tells him he was in one of his dreams, but Donghyuck never goes into details. Today, Donghyuck feels generous, so he replies, “It was a cute dream.” He pushes Mark’s face away from him and laughs a little when Mark pouts. “We were tiny. Just kids. I fell during an eclipse and it was the first time we saw each other but you helped me up and then tried to teach me things about the night to make me feel better.” Donghyuck pauses, watching next to him as a flower in the grass blooms under his fingertips. “It was cute,” he repeats. “It sounds like something you would do.”

Donghyuck glances away from the flower to Mark when he doesn’t reply. Next to him, Mark is staring at him, disbelief on his face. 

“What’s wrong?” Donghyuck says, moving closer to Mark. He takes one of Mark’s hands in his own.

“That was real,” Mark says, squeezing Donghyuck’s hand. “That’s how we met.” With hopeful eyes, he says, “Are you starting to remember?”

Donghyuck isn’t. The dreams don’t feel like his own—they feel like movies that he’s watching, a life that he never lived. “I don’t know,” is what he says instead, careful not to stomp on Mark’s hope. 

“Tell me what else you dream about,” Mark says. His hand is trembling in Donghyuck’s. 

Donghyuck takes Mark’s other hand too and grips both of them until the shaking stops. “Sure,” Donghyuck says, and he starts to speak. Mark’s gaze never leaves him.  
  


☾☼

After that, the dreams are more frequent.

Whenever Donghyuck wakes, Mark is always waiting excitedly for Donghyuck to recount them to him. It's nice because Donghyuck gets to hear stories from Mark, like the continuation of where his dream stopped or the context of why it happened. But it gives Mark hope, and while these are memories to Mark, they're still only dreams to Donghyuck.  
  


☾☼

They’re walking in the middle of the city, blending in with the crowds of people, when Donghyuck asks, “Where were you?” Mark looks away from the shop window he was peering into and stares questioningly at Donghyuck, waiting for him to continue. “That first day I came back. You can walk during the day but I had to wait until you woke up to meet you.” Now that he’s asked one question, Donghyuck is on a roll, “And how can you walk during the day anyway? I always go to sleep when night falls.” Mark looks at Donghyuck amused. “Is that too many questions?” Donghyuck asks.

Mark shakes his head, laughing. “They basically have the same answer,” he says.

Now it’s Donghyuck’s turn to look confused. 

Mark laughs again, grabs Donghyuck’s hand and swings it back and forth between them. “It all comes down to you,” Mark says, with complete sincerity. It makes Donghyuck’s breath catch. “You made a bargain with a god when we were younger, when we could only see each other during sunrises and sunsets, and once during an eclipse. You made a deal, so I could see the sun. You thought it was unfair that you saw the moon during an eclipse but I could never see the day when the sun was bright and shining.”

“I did?” Donghyuck says, and it makes sense because if Donghyuck was given the chance now, he would do it again. “What did I trade?”

“Yeah, you did,” Mark says, “and you never told me what you traded.” He smiles, and continues, “I walked during the day because of you and when you were gone it didn’t make sense for me to continue.”

“So you slept,” Donghyuck says.

“I slept,” Mark agrees, “and I waited for your return.”  
  


☾☼

There are days when Donghyuck is fine with what he has. Despite their searches, Renjun and Jeno don’t find anything similar to what happened to Donghyuck. They’re no closer to figuring out what happened, but his relationship with Mark is blooming. While Donghyuck still doesn’t remember, they make new memories and sometimes that seems good enough.

Then there are other days, when a tendril of doubt twists in Donghyuck’s mind and reminds him that these new memories will never be the same as the ones he’s forgotten. Those days he sees the gaps in his past and it makes him question who he even is. Mark has been with him for so long—since they were _children_ —that Donghyuck’s memories were so full of him and now that they’re gone, Donghyuck is left with half the person he was. 

On those days, he curls up in the middle of the field, and the sun shines less bright. Mark sits next to him during those days, running his fingers through Donghyuck’s hair and rubbing Donghyuck’s back. He tells Donghyuck stories that he hears from the stars about other gods. He tells Donghyuck about the fight between the god of thunder and god of lightning, the romance between the god of dreams and god of memories, and legends. The legends always have the same message: never trust a deal with the god of fate. 

Donghyuck likes listening to Mark’s voice but it doesn’t stop the doubt creeping in. Mark tries, but he’s not quite sure how to fix it, and Donghyuck isn’t sure anything can.  
  


☾☼

In this dream, Donghyuck is young again. He’s in his childhood bedroom, napping during the day when a whisper of a voice calling out his name fills his head. It wakes him up but when Donghyuck looks around, there’s no one there.

 _“Donghyuck_ ,” the voice whispers. It echoes enough that it feels like it’s both surrounding him and in his head. _“I hear you have a request for me.”_

Donghyuck opens his mouth and hears his voice say, “I do. I have a request for a friend.” 

Donghyuck slowly realises what this is. This is when he bargained for Mark’s freedom. 

_“Hmm.”_ It feels like there’s an intruder in his mind, poking and prodding at his brain. It reads his thoughts, and whispers, _“What can you offer for your friend’s place in the sun? It's not easy, to change something set in stone.”_

“What do you want?” Donghyuck asks. 

_“A memory.”_

“A memory?” Donghyuck repeats. 

_“Your most important one,”_ the voice says.

It takes Donghyuck less than a minute to accept. A memory for Mark's freedom. It's a deal Donghyuck is more than willing to make. 

_“Don't regret,”_ it whispers. _“I will take your memories at a later time. You can leave it up to the god of fate.”_

The dream cuts out and Donghyuck wakes up with a startle. It’s sunrise again. Mark is lying on his back in the grass, eyes closed. Donghyuck shakes him awake.

Mark opens his eyes, sees Donghyuck’s distress and immediately checks to see if anything is wrong with him, but Donghyuck ignores him.

“Mark,” Donghyuck says, frantic. “I think I know what happened. I think I know why I can’t remember you.”  
  


☾☼

“You made a deal with the god of fate,” Jaemin says slowly, from where he’s leaning against a tree. Renjun is sitting on a log next to Jeno. They’re at the river again, gathered around to listen to Donghyuck’s dream.

Donghyuck nods. He’s standing by the water. For a moment, he wants to step backwards and sink into the water, sink further and further away from all his problems. From next to him, Mark wraps an arm around Donghyuck’s waist and holds him steady.

“You bargained your most important memory,” Renjun says. “And your most important memory was—”

“Mark,” Donghyuck says. He stares at the dirt beneath his feet. “My most important memory was Mark.”

It makes sense, why so much of his memory is gone, why Donghyuck feels like half a person. His most important memory was Mark—everything that had to do with Mark—and Mark has been with him for most of his life. 

“Never trust a deal with the god of fate,” Jeno recites, softly. 

“Guess I didn’t know that then,” Donghyuck says. He hears Jeno say, _sorry_ , and knows that Mark glared at him.

“What are you going to do now?” Jaemin asks.

“I don’t know,” Donghyuck says. “I don’t think there’s much we can do.”

“We can fix this,” Mark says, pulling Donghyuck in closer. 

“I don’t think we can,” Donghyuck says. That tendril of doubt finds its way back to Donghyuck’s mind. It’s final now—Donghyuck’s loss of memories, half of himself gone. The tendril squeezes his brain until Donghyuck forgets how to feel.  
  


☾☼

The next day when Donghyuck wakes, Mark is gone. It comes as a surprise to him because Donghyuck has never woken up without Mark by his side.

Donghyuck calls for Jaemin and goes to the river to find Renjun and Jeno, but when he asks, none of them know where Mark is. He walks around all the places they like to visit together but Mark isn’t there. 

In the end, Donghyuck waits in their field for Mark to return but Mark doesn’t show up. Mark doesn’t show up the next day either, or the next. A year passes and Mark still doesn’t show up. But every day, Donghyuck waits and wonders if this is what Mark felt when Donghyuck disappeared. Only now does he truly understand why Mark would sleep the days away.  
  


☾☼

Donghyuck’s watching this year’s _Yongdeungje_ festival with Jaemin when his memories start to return.

The first memory is of the god of fate sneaking into his mind again, the day after the _Yongdeungje_ festival decades ago, telling Donghyuck it’s time to collect his most important memory. The next is a blur of the years after, of resting inside the sun while his memories of Mark were slowly pulled away. Then, the memories of Mark start to trickle in—their first kiss in the very field they’ve claimed as their own, Mark comforting him when Donghyuck’s mother passed away to old age, their first meeting during the eclipse. His other dreams trickle back in too but this time, Donghyuck can remember living them and not just watching it happen. 

Donghyuck gasps as everything comes back to him, and from beside him, Jaemin holds him through it all. Tears sting at the corner of Donghyuck’s eyes. He remembers everything, he remembers _Mark_ , and he finally feels whole again. 

But then Donghyuck’s relief and happiness quickly turn into worry, when he thinks of Mark who is still missing and what Mark must've done to get these memories back for him.  
  


☾☼

Decades pass and Mark still doesn’t return. Donghyuck relives his memories, and tries to recall how Mark feels in his hands, Mark’s voice in his ears, Mark’s fingers in his hair. It never feels like he can remember it well enough. Eventually, Donghyuck stops counting the days, the months, the years, and just continues his tasks as the god of the sun.

Donghyuck meets old gods and new gods, and his story becomes a legend that’s told with the message: _never trust a deal with the god of fate_. The favourites of the gods that Donghyuck meets are Chenle and Jisung, god of memories and god of dreams, who tell him they couldn’t fight fate, but they tried to help Donghyuck anyway. The dreams Donghyuck had full of his old memories were because of them. Donghyuck thanks them, and they continue to visit him enough that they become close friends. 

Jaemin, Renjun, and Jeno, still give Donghyuck looks of pity when they think he isn’t looking, but Donghyuck slowly learns to live with that.

Throughout it all, Donghyuck waits for Mark and never gives up hope.  
  


☾☼

When it’s time for the next eclipse, for the day to meet the night, Donghyuck waits in their field again. The sky darkens as the moon meets the sun, and Donghyuck squeezes his eyes tight. It’s his first eclipse without Mark and Donghyuck feels Mark’s absence with every fibre of his being.

Like a dream, Donghyuck feels arms wrap around him. “Donghyuck,” he hears Mark’s voice say, “I’ve missed you so much.”

It’s exactly like the time so many years ago that it takes a while for Donghyuck to realise that this is real. The arms wrapped around him are solid and not a figment of his imagination. Donghyuck spins around and hugs Mark tight.

“Where have you been?” Donghyuck says. He buries his head in the juncture between Mark’s neck and shoulder. “I’ve missed you too.”

“Do you remember everything now?” Mark says. Donghyuck leans back to fully look at him, and he looks as handsome as ever, but tiredness and sadness cast a shadow over his face. 

“I do,” Donghyuck says. He leans up and kisses Mark and it feels like coming home. “What did you do to get them back? Wait, you can tell me later. Where have you been?”

“I can’t,” Mark says. At Donghyuck’s confusion, Mark continues, “I can’t tell you later. This is all the time we have.”

Donghyuck’s hands shake. “What do you mean?”

“The god of fate—I made a deal with him for your memories,” Mark says. “I thought I could trade back my time in the sun for them.”

“Mark,” Donghyuck says. “What did you do?” There’s dread starting to build at his throat. These years were so hard without Mark. Donghyuck expected everything to be back to normal when Mark came back. This isn’t something he prepared for. 

“I can only walk during the night,” Mark says. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Donghyuck says. He runs his hands down Mark’s back, soothingly. “We still have our sunrises and sunsets,” he says. “We’ve always had those.”

Mark closes his eyes, and the dread drops into the pit of Donghyuck’s stomach, weighing him down. “Never trust a deal with the god of fate,” Mark recites. He lets out a breath and says, “He took those too.”

Donghyuck’s heart is pounding in his chest. This doesn’t feel real. This time, Mark rubs a hand down Donghyuck’s back, trying to calm him. “When can we see each other?”

“Only during times like now,” Mark says, his voice catching at the end. “Only during eclipses.”

Donghyuck’s legs give out, and he collapses onto the grass. It prickles his skin and feels like needles. Mark wraps his arms around Donghyuck, and Donghyuck holds him tight. He feels Mark press a kiss to his cheek and it nearly makes him cry. 

“Then we’ll make the most of our time,” Donghyuck says, voice choked. He breathes in Mark’s scent and tries to commit the feeling of Mark against himself to memory. “And I’ll wait those years until I can see you again.”  
  


☾☼

Before the eclipse ends, Mark kisses the top of Donghyuck’s head and says, “We’re lucky, you know. Because of you, I got to spend centuries in the sun with you. That’s something we weren’t destined to have, but will always be ours.”

Sitting alone in the sun, staring at the spot Mark just left, Donghyuck wonders whether they really are lucky. Donghyuck now knows how it feels to walk in the sun with Mark by his side. He knows it well enough that each day the absence of Mark chokes him. Maybe it would’ve been easier if they hadn’t questioned fate, and were satisfied with what they were given. 

It’s a question that Donghyuck’s not sure will ever get answered. He just hopes that maybe, one day, it’ll get easier and Donghyuck will be content with their stolen pockets of time. 

For now, Donghyuck waits for the day the moon meets the sun, so he can finally see Mark again.

**Author's Note:**

> [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/thursday) / [twitter](https://twitter.com/falserecall)


End file.
